Scenes from a summer

{location: outside on the deck under the stars}

Me: "This is perfect. All we need is a blanket and some tea."
John-Luke: "And a big sister."

(later)
Me: "I wish I had a big sister."
John-Luke: "I don't."
Me: "Why?"
John-Luke: "I'm not sure I could take two of you."

Me: Look at that tiny star. It's moving, but not like a plane, like a little bug.
John-Luke: "Maybe it's a mosquito. With a flashlight."

meant to be.

Today {thus far} has been an extremely good day. It has included:

Wearing a skirt
Actually doing something cool with my hair
Using a gigantic umbrella in the snow/rain
Free overly sugared yogurt from McDonald's
also ZIP FIZZ
Writing stories during music theory class with Sabam
Wind in my face
Actually understanding what went on in Chinese class
Cool battle wounds from awana games practice to examine during music theory
Trying to sight-sing little brother's violin music and failing
The oh-so-beautiful feeling of NO SCHOOL TOMORROW

I just have to say....

Okay, so everyone everywhere who lives within like a 50 mile radius of me has probably posted about the weather in some way.

BUT THAT'S BECAUSE IT'S GLORIOUS!!!!!

I don't care how many adults or grown-up children there are who hate the snow, I will shamelessly continue my love for it. I refuse to let my sheer delight for tiny white flakes die.

I will dance in the snow, even if it means my boots get soaked through....

I will make snow angels and sled and have snowball fights till I'm freezing...

I'm going to build a snowman, I'm going to run up and down hills and delight in it like a child.



Also add to that that there's NO SCHOOL TODAY?! Yes I am happy.

"I do dare to live a life of extravagant happiness. I will love so fiercely, live so much gladness, that everyone will think that it isn’t fair.
But I will cherish this happiness, and not guilt myself into giving it up because other people don’t have it. No, instead I will find ways to make that happiness for other people, pouring it into every corner that I visit, fearlessly showing my loved ones that I care, allowing my sympathies to be stricken into helping my fellow men with everything inside of me.
But I will not give up my high ground, and sink into despondency. The world needs a higher ratio of happiness to depression, and I will be among the happy. Just my very joyful presence will lighten the load of the overburdened, terrible, broken world.
I do dare to live a life of extravagant happiness."

--Gray

Oh yes.

CHRISTMAS BREAK IS HERE!!

That's right, I just finished my LAST FINAL of my first quarter at real school.

Happiness does not even describe. I also had a peppermint mocha to celebrate.

SAT studying, piano practicing, California debaters, speeches, actually blogging, awana quizzing, SLEEPING, Christmas shopping, hanging with my friends....BRING IT ON!

I feel like I can breathe now. I have time to read books. I can guiltlessly spend hours on the phone or run out with my friends. I don't have to worry about wasting time. I can spend an hour on debate without worrying about a single English paper that I should be doing. I can just chill with my little brother. Also, have I mentioned that my sister is coming home for Christmas??

I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Mmm....this movie seriously just makes me so happy. I finally watched it again with my brother (who, might I add, should be commended for his ability to restrain criticism during the whole thing) and completely fell in love with it all over again.

Oh, oh, oh!

[Sorry this is so incredibly late. I'm catching up, really. I wrote a majority of this right after Idaho but have just gotten around to posting it. Regionals post is coming soon.]

I had the most FABULOUS time at the Idaho tournament over March 18-20. The week preceding was filled with seehowmuchofyourspeechyoucancramintooneday! along with script submission forms, last minute duo changes, and more double stick tape and magnets than a sane person should be handling at one time.

After frantically scurrying around, trying to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything of significant importance, (mind you, this was the first time Raymond and I had gone anywhere without mom or dad. It took awhile to get out the door. =P) we all got in the car and drove to the M's house, since they were taking us. After mom and dad had left (and I had checked the car 3 times to make sure nothing of significance was left in there), we proceeded to spend the next 2 hours chasing angry chickens and running around their house, making sure we hadn't forgotten anything of significant importance.

And off we went!

Us Poor Washingtonians. So excited about a little bit of snow.

I love this picture.

We had way too much fun on this car trip.

Sarah, who I called "my monkey" for most of the trip, making her "Giant" face for her speech


I have officially adopted her as another of my little sisters.



Self Explanatory.

Sorry for the bad video quality....this was before I switched to using Raymond's camera. This was right about when we reached Spokane.

We were frantically trying to get Raymond's camera set up so we could film us actually crossing the boarder.

Okay, so maybe I was a *little* excited about getting to Idaho....
(Here you get to hear my "Idaho poem" which was composed specially for the tournament)

We arrived at the church,
survived script submissions and registration,
and then stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner with the M family, Mrs. M's brother's family, and Mrs. M's parents. Raymond and I were particularly amused by the "deep fried ice cream" on the dessert menu, which we all got to try in honor of Rebecca's birthday.

Rebecca, Sarah, and I all shared a room....and boy did we have good times.
This was actually our second night. The first night into the first day of the tournament was WAY to hectic to worry about taking pictures. =P

Sisters. =)

"Close your eyes and look like you're asleep!"

"AAAHHHH!!!!"

Bright and early the next morning, after frantic showers, inhaling our breakfast, last minute hair fixes, blazers, tie-malfunctions, and other such things as come with speech competitions, we all hurried out into a crisp, cool Idaho morning (translated as: FREEZING!) to drive to the church.

Just to illustrate how cold it was....




We found some of the most amusing things on the way...

Expensive energy drinks, no?

One LONG tournament day later...the mental-craze of the tournament is finally setting in as we marveled over this chicken like thing right outside the tournament...for which the video is unavailable. But know speech tournaments do weird things to your brain. (haven't I said this already?)

On the way home, we took the "Cliff Road", as Rebecca calls it, by Coeur d'Alene lake.

GORGEOUS.

For once I was satisfied with the results of my attempts-at-photography...

Sarah liked the hairpiece I used on day two, and she asked me to put it in her hair when we got home.

Little model <3

Next day...... Semis/Finals breaks. ...... AAAAAHHHHHH!!! This is where Hannah gets overly hyper and excited.Our duo (me and Raymond) broke to semis, but not to finals. My Dramatic Interp. broke to finals, as did my Illustrated Oratory.

Semis and finals have always been my favorite rounds (even though they are the most nerve racking)....I get the adrenaline rush and the energy high and run around frantically trying to find rooms, trying not to be nervous, watching some of the really good speeches, and enjoying myself immensely.

This is the kind of thing you do before you go into a round. Pace back and forth looking at patterns on the walls. =P
(actually, he wasn't waiting for a round. But he did find some kind of odd pattern)

Waiting for the awards ceremony with my friend Gabby...

Our duo placed 12th, my dramatic placed 6th, and my illustrated placed 3rd.

And little Miss Sarah competed in the Junior Tournament they held with "Jack and the Beanstalk" for her dramatic. She was the youngest competitor in the entire tournament and placed 3rd. I have never seen her so happy. :)

(she's the shortest one with the lovely green dress)
All in all, it was a lovely tournament and I had a fabulous time.

(Don't) Look Back and Wonder...

There's 3 sides to "bittersweet", you know. There's "bittersweet", "bittersweet", and then just "bittersweet". Today was "bittersweet". The sort of tears you cry not because you're angry, not because you're sad, not because you're happy....just a sharp sort of throb in your heart where people used to be. It's like when you see someone and you're overjoyed to see them but it makes you realize how much you miss them and you can't seem to get enough of their company before you have to leave them again.

I need to make a list of all the precious few, absolutely FABULOUS days I have.

Today, I saw a bunch of my amazing good friends I haven't seen in a long time, got more hugs than I've had since I left church, and probably cried more than I have in the past month. I also got to talk to my big sister on the phone and do some catching up with another good friend I haven't seen in a year.

I saw so, so many people today that I miss a lot. But it was still a good day. A bittersweet day.

Tournaments Do Weird Things To Us

Verve Tournament was last weekend!!! =D

Seriously, who doesn't love giant pieces of chocolate cake the size of your head and half-crazed line dancing to live bluegrass music and winning piles of trophies?

Okay, so I didn't win piles of trophies. Just one. (It's shiny and extremely sharp on the end. ::grin::) But other people did.

I love how speech tournaments end up being some of my best, most memorable weekends. I've only been to 2 and already I'm getting them all mixed up. But oh, I love it.....running frantically to a round, tournament pizza, meeting new people, slippers, blazers, breaks, skits, sharp trophies....

My Illustrated Oratory got 2nd place, which was extremely surprising. My dramatic only got 13th, but it was still loads of fun.

I ::cough:: will admit I memorized my speech the night before the tournament. And I was pretty nervous about it too.

So, a friend of mine and were having a conversation on gmail the other day about memorizing speeches. (this was pre-tournament as I was frantically trying to memorize)

Me: Thing is, I tend to do a good amount of forgetting when I'm extremely nervous.......
Friend: ah
hmm.
so don't get nervous! =D
Me: That's a good point.

About a day later, I sent an email to my sister and asked her to pray for my speech tournament. She wrote back and gave me this verse:

I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

I honestly thought this was the coolest verse in the world that God could have given me. Not only did it say "I will go in the strength of the Lord" (as in, He will give me the words, strength, and calm nerves for my speech), but "I will make mention of your righteousness..."

If you've seen my speech, you know that it's on Chinese characters and their connection to the Bible - and that the climactic point (and pretty much my thesis statement) is righteousness.

Is God amazing or what?

It was absolutely amazing how peaceful I felt during the rounds. Yes, I messed up, which usually caused my heart to go ::kerthump:: and my face to turn pink and I would fumble with the boards to pass the time while I remembered what came next. But that only happened once or twice, and for some reason I could still keep going smoothly and enjoyably.

It's amazing the peace God gives you when you know you are doing it for Him, that there is nothing to be afraid of, and that His joy is your strength. =)

I'll post more pictures soon!

Adventures at Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's has always amused me....oh, the things they come up with. I'm sure I haven't seen the best of them, seeing as we don't shop there very often. But mom came home today with Brownies with this name:



Alright, so perhaps not everyone finds them as amusing as I do. But I also must tell you the story of one of my experiences at Trader Joe's.

I'm sure they're quite used to the strangest people coming in there, being one of the stranger stores themselves (But oh, how I love those stores) So we probably weren't the worse case they've seen.....but nevertheless it was quite amusing and very fun.

So, I'm in the car with some friends of our family, who we will call Mr. & Mrs. H. - they're like my second grandparents and I absolutely love them. They were taking me to a flute performance. So we are dressed up. Note that it was a Jewish Hanukkah event I was playing at....and Mr. H was wearing a yamaka, one of those Jewish hats.

May I also remind you that I am part Asian.

So, we pass a Trader Joe's.

Mrs. H: Oh! We should go to Trader Joe's and get Hannah a tissue box!!!!

*I give a questioning look to Mrs. H, who is leaning eagerly towards the front seat to Mr. H, who is driving.*

Mr. H: Oh! Yeah, we need to get her one!

*I smile and nod....*

(this is all on the spur of the moment)

Mrs. H: (rather excitedly) See, there are these tissue boxes, and they are the funniest thing, because instead of normal designs on them, they have writing!

*I smile, nod, and think to myself that I am sure I have seen tissue boxes with writing on them somewhere before, but didn't know why they were so special.*

We park, pile out of the car, and enter the store. We don't want to be late for the flute performance, so we're jogging a bit.

In our black skirts and white shirts. And yamakas.

We run around for a bit, and then find the tissue boxes....which turn out to be much more amusing than I had expected. And very fitting that this family would enjoy them. =]

(click to enlarge)







Aren't they awesome? I love how the pictures are so old fashioned. It's quite a creative idea.

So, I am amused, and they proceed to buy one for me. Then they decide they want to buy about 7 more for some more of their friends.

So I'm running around in my performance clothes with Mr. H with his yamaka, Mrs. H, who is about 2 inches shorter than me, and about 5 or 6 tissue boxes piled in my arms.

Then Mr. H decides he wants to get my family some jam.

Mr. H: You must try some of this jam, we have about 3 jars at home, and it is delicious.

*We wander for a few minutes*

Me: (through the armload of tissue boxes) Mr. H, it's alright, you don't have to worry about the jam...

*No reply from Mr. H, who is searching the shelves.....*

Me: Mrs. H, would you like me to get a basket? (we now have tissue boxes, nuts, and one or two other things)

Mrs. H: Oh, sure, that'd be great....

*I hurry to a basket (tissue boxes and all) and am all the while thinking Oh, I love my life...and all the people in it.*

We can't seem to find the jam, so we run up to the store clerk, who couldn't quite figure out what we were talking about, (I mean...yamaka, tissue boxes, and all...) to ask for the jam. So, he sent us to the refrigerated department, where we found other kinds of fruit spreads, but no jam.

(mind you, this is a special kind of jam we're looking for)

After asking around a few more times, we locate the jam.

Checkout:

Mrs. H: (after piling the 6 or so boxes onto the counter along with the jam and a few other things) Don't you just love those tissues boxes?

Checkout boy: Yeah, aren't they great?

Mrs. H: We don't need the tissues....we just buy them for the box!

*Checkout boy smiles, obviously amused*

We run out to the car, get in, (yamaka, jam, tissue boxes, and all) and make it to my flute performance early.

I love my life. And my "grandparents". And being weird in grocery stores. =]

Eeeooii!! I love speech.

So! Today marked my first real, full-length tournament! Oh my goodness, I'm wiped out.

But...I'm strangely in this happy mood. It wasn't like quizzing, where I was wiped out, discouraged, and forcing myself into cheerfulness and positiveness to keep the tears away. (I refuse to cry over that quiz meet. I also refuse to let myself think about it. Enough on that.)

I LOVE speech. Even though I only have 2 events and only have to go once tomorrow, I am planning on staying all day just to watch, immerse myself, and probably time multiple rounds.

I'm hesitant to say that I have finally found a place (since we left church) where I really feel like myself. Because as soon as I let myself go, something happens.

But I am having So Much Fun! :) I mean literally. I am SO tired. But so happy. And it's not near as nerve racking, emotionally difficult, or as hard as...well, the quiz meet. Anyway.

I have to add that I love the people at speech. We're geeky, loud, and you'd probably freak if you wandered into a room with us, but I absolutely love how everyone can just be themselves and have so much fun together.

And I get to get up in the morning and do it all again tomorrow!! I'm so excited!!

AAAAHHHH!!!!!

Remember this post? Guess what??? BREAD comes in purple too!!!!

I was at the Chinese mall the other day, doing some shopping with my mom. And we passed the bakery. And as we were looking at cakes for my dad, this glint of purple caught my eye. So of course I had to run over to see what it was.

and LO and BEHOLD, it was purple bread!! Made my day. So I showed it to mom, who explained what made it purple (yams, I think. There's also this yummy stuff called taro in it) and proceeded to get it for me. (*squee!*)

I brought it home, gave it a parade around the house to show my family my find, took a few pictures for the purposes of sharing this new delight with my blog readers, and tasted it!

It is... (wait for it)

DELICIOUS! I absolutley loved it. It's sweet-ish, but not like cinnamon sweet or anything. I really could eat it almost all the time. It tastes good plain or toasted. It especially tastes good toasted just slightly brown with lots of butter.

Did you know that toasting purple bread makes it brown? You would hope that such a phenomenal occurrence would turn...blue or something when you toast it. :P But no, it turns brown. Which is to be expected, because it IS just bread, after all.

Still, it's unusual bread, and it's PURPLE, which is just fantabulous. And I get to use my purpleness tag. :P

Sadly, I was unable to get a fabulous, prize-winning, stunning photo...but here is a picture, nevertheless, and just look at that glorious purple...

Christmas things...

One of my favorite things about Christmas is church. I especially am beginning to love advent - the candle lighting, stories, and all. Our family has been reading "Jotham's Journey", which is an advent story, and I LOVE it. It's so well written and sometimes we purposely skip a day so we can read two the next day because we can't stand the cliffhangers! =P

Last week we sang "Zither Carol" at church. I LOVE this song. I think the congregation really enjoyed it too.

This week our handbell choir played background music. I absolutely LOVE handbell choir. It's so much fun!!

I love this picture. These are the biggest bells, which Raymond and Jared got to play. The smallest ones are about half the size of your hand. [whereas these are about what, twice the size of your head?? =P]

Our little flute trio! I absolutely love our flute group. It makes me happy. =)

Katy and I just learned 4-in-hand about 2 weeks ago. 4-in-hand is where you have two bells in each hand [as opposed to one] and it's really tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, you feel reeeally smart. :P We had a lot of fun playing and learning together as you can probably see....

Geneva Hall was decorated beautifully - all the trains everywhere and trees and decorations. I loved it.
The train tree

For at least this year, my favorite part about Christmas is definitely church. All the special music, decorations, candles, advent...I love it. =)

Here come the long string of Christmas posts!

Over the past few weeks I have been very busy with Christmassy things, parties, things ending, gifts, singing for church, performances, and such. And of course I've been thinking about all these great things to blog about. And while I was going to compile it into one huge post....I figured I'd probably lose half my readers who don't like long posts. :P

So here's a nice short Christmas post - the first of many! Oh, don't you love Christmas?

Bracie, who authors the blog the Locket, shared a new Christmas song by Taylor Swift - which I really really like. Not only because it's coming from Taylor Swift, but because I really do like the words.

Awhile ago, I was kind of ::cough:: obsessed with Taylor Swift, but I got over that quickly, and hardly listen to her anymore. But I love this song - and she's talking about Jesus Birth the WHOLE time [no sob/breakup/crush content] - and she says Jesus Christ in the end!!! Which I think is amazing coming from such a popular artist such as herself. And a great message to a world who needs to hear it so desperately. I'll have more on Christmas and Jesus and stuff, but for now, enjoy the song!! =)

I'm bored. And *slightly* hyper.

So! I'm going to make a random post. Because I'm bored and feeling random. And childish and immature. And I will probably look back at this post and be all like, "wow, was I dumb", because I'm not really thinking properly about how my sentences are worded....[see? that didn't even sound right..]

Heeheehee...oh, the joys of being random and hyper. But, there is some cause for my joys, as you shall soon see in the sentences that follow....[boy that sounded lame...]

1) My big sister is coming home for Christmas! In 8 days!! And just in case you're thinking "what in the world?? Hannah doesn't have a big sister", it's true, I do. But she adopted me, and we're not biological sisters. But we're sisters. =)

2)We started a flute group at church. I'm loving it. Immensely. I haven't played with a group of people just for fun in a long time and it felt really good. Plus I got to sing for the first time with the choir, and that was loads of fun.

3) Christmas time is always happy....

4) Did I mention my big sister is coming home for Christmas?

5) It's sunny out. I'm quite happy. And as cold as it is, I really like it. And I think so long as it stays sunny, I shall be positive about the lack of snow. However, if it decides to rain and stay this cold, I might have reason to complain. But So Far, it's sunny, so I'm happy.

6) I had hot chocolate this morning. and it was warm. Oh, and there was a gigantic vanilla bean marshmallow that I had with it. It was lovely.

7) I forgot to tell you that my sister is coming home for Christmas! =P

Love,
Hannah

PS if you're wondering why this post is tagged "purpleness" it's because I really wanted to use the tag, and because this post is random, I saw it a useful place to use it. :P

PPS please tell me if I made a really embarrassing typo and didn't notice it. [I tend to not notice things when I'm hyper] And please comment, because I love comments. =P

Who would've thunk??

Cauliflower comes in PURPLE!! I was elated!!! [my new word] Mom made some for dinner last night. And while it wasn't the best thing I've ever tasted, I certainly liked it more normal white cauliflower.



PS - for those of you who didn't get my facebook message, I'm taking a week off facebook and gmail - but not my blog and email, so you can always contact me there. :)
PPS - isn't that purple cauliflower just too amazing for words?????? I love it. =P

Little Joys in life...

...are causes of much happiness. :) [did that make sense...?]

Yesterday, I had half a donut in piano class....didn't think it'd do that much, [just a half, right??] but I was insanely hyper...then I discovered that my favorite movie company of all time, Sherwood Pictures, is making another movie!!! ::squeal::

View the "trailer" here =D ::dances::

THEN, today is Halloween. We don't celebrate halloween, but Spirit 105.3, the local Christian radio station, is playing Christmas music all day for their "halloween costume" which is just...way cool. I think Matthew rubbed all this Christmas excitement off on me, because now I'm psyched about Christmas...and it's only October!!!!

You can listen to the amazing Christmas music here =D

And...ooh, did I mention I had a brownie last night? Wait, maybe it was 2....And I'm just all around happy right now, which is odd...and weird...but, it's a nice feeling. and I love Christmas. I'm thinking about changing my blog background for Christmas early. =P

Plus I've been having the most amazing time with some of the most amazing people getting ready for the recital mentioned in the post before.